I’m wondering if my Sand boas are maturing at the correct rates.
One was born in 2017 and is 39 grams, sold as a female and looking at her tail does appear to be female.
The other is definitely a male and is 37 grams. He’s likely born in 2017 or 2018.
So they’re both roughly 3-5 years old and not even over 40 grams while most females get to at least 300 grams.
They eat every 7-14 days a fuzzy mouse (which are the width of their body) and eat consistently, very rarely missing a meal. Usually due to being in shed but eat soon after within the 14 day time span.
They don’t appear underweight nor overweight and their behavior is normal as well. Temps are 93 hot spot with 75 cool end and 3.5 inches of substrate with multiple hides and 0-30% humidity.
Should i increase the frequency they are fed, or keep their schedule as is?
Not able to offer much advise, but would you happen to have pictures of the snakes and their setup? That would probably help whoever has good experience with these. I am not a pro, nor have I ever kept this species, but your setup seems pretty good.
Thank you for the welcome! I’ve just posted some photos of their setups and current photos of them to see their body mass as well as their size next to what i feed them.
They don’t appear underweight, but the weights listed are small for the age when comparing to my males. Have they been in your care this whole time since their stated birth years so you can confirm their age? If so, have they ever had a lengthy hunger strike?
No lengthy hunger strikes more than 14 days. Usually by the second week they’re back to eating normally again and have only skipped food if they’re in shed ( for example, the larger one *assumed female ate tonight while the smaller one did not as he is in shed right now. After he finishes shedding he should be back to eating weekly)
I got the 37 gram one in 2019 and the 39 gram one in 2017.
At that time they could fit in the palm of my hand and needed pinky mice.
They’ve been in my care and eating regularly since those times. (Edit is to add photos of when they were first received)
I would expect a 3-5 year old male to have broken the 100 gram threshold, or at least be close to it. An average female would definitely be above that mark. To answer your original question
I don’t see an issue with increasing feeding frequency slightly to see if that gets them over this plateau. Be sure to continue keeping an eye on their body condition to avoid becoming overweight though.
Wow those are small for 3 and 5 year old KSB’s. Everything sounds spot on husbandry wise in my opinion. Were they from the same breeder, if so maybe it’s genetically related? I have a 3 year old male that has just finally reached breeding weight (60g) while another male of mine is right around 150g and he is only about a year older. So who knows it might just be luck of the draw.
Possibly since i got them in the same area, but one was from a breeder and the other i adopted off of Craigslist so i cannot guarantee they’re related.
Even small localities should at least be 60 grams by now though, so their size is unusual. They’re healthy otherwise but their size does still concern be a tad, so I’ll be feeding them every 4-5 days to hopefully encourage them to grow.
I personally would stick to every 7 days to give their digestive systems time to properly cycle. The only sandboas I feed weekly are my babies until they get to fuzzy mice then I go to 7-10 days. The meal size that you are giving them looks correct for their size I would recommend sticking to that for now. Have you tried talking to a exotic animal vet? I would try doing so if nothing else but to give you some peace of mind and to get their opinion on why their growth is so stunted.
